Dissociative Amnesia - Causes, Symptoms & Treatment

Dissociative Amnesia is a pervasive loss of memory of significant personal information. Dissociative amnesia is characterized by a blocking out of critical personal information, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature. Amnesia associated with head trauma is typically both retrograde and anterograde (the patient has no memory of events after the injury). Dissociative amnesia occurs when a person blocks out certain information, usually associated with a stressful or traumatic event, leaving him or her unable to remember important personal information. Types of amnesia inclue anterograde amnesia, retrograde amnesia, transient global amnesia, traumatic amnesia, wernike-Korsakoff's psychosis. People with dissociative amnesia usually have one or more memory gaps spanning a few minutes to a few hours or days. Most people with dissociative amnesia are aware that they have "lost some time," but some become aware of time loss only when they realize or are confronted with evidence. The primary cause of dissociative amnesia is stress associated with traumatic experiences that the patient has either survived or witnessed. These may include such major life stressors as serious financial problems, the death of a parent or spouse, extreme internal conflict, and guilt related to serious crimes or turmoil caused by difficulties with another person.